Hearings on Amangeldy Batyrbekov's case are postponed

The first meeting of the board of appeals of the Turkestan Regional Court on case of journalist Amangeldy Batyrbekov was scheduled for 3 PM  November 5.  However, on November 4, Amangeldy's attorney was informed by telephone that the hearing was postponed til November 12. Official reason: the lawyer of the person affected fell ill.

As it was reported, on September 23, 2019, the Saryagash district court of the Turkestan region sentenced civil activist, editor of the Saryagash info newspaper Amangeldy Batyrbekov to two years and 3 months in prison, finding him guilty of defamation and insult. The affected person is Bakhtiyar Abdiev, the head of the education department of the Keles region, about whom Batyrbekov posted a number of critical posts on his Facebook page.

 National human rights organizations, one of the world's leading non-governmental organizations in the field of protection and promotion of freedom of information "Reporters without Borders", members of the IFEX global network for freedom of expression, spoke out in defense of A. Batyrbekov. , IFEX in its statement on November 1 reminded: “The consideration of theUPR of Kazakhstan will take place next week, November 7, 2019. It is imperative that the government of Kazakhstan remember that such an attitude towards dissidents will not be overlooked and is not acceptable, prosecution of Batyrbekov should be stopped and that  criminal liability for defamation should be repealed.